And We Begin Again (On Hiatus)
by Echo-impulsivesound
Summary: This isn't just a story about one of us, it's a story about all of us.
1. Viridian

It had all happened so fast

One minute, they were battling bec noir, the next they were somewhere completely different.

It was a jungle that much was certain, but exactly where it was, was still a mystery. It wasn't that much trouble to find food and shelter with her own extensive knowledge of having to survive on an island, but it was still hard, mostly because of the loneliness.

Of course that didn't last long.

For the first three weeks she had survived on her own, and she was beginning to miss her own friends and wondered where they had been sent to, they may have been sent to a different world for all she knew, but then a small glimmer of hope had begun to shine.

Although she didn't find someone right away she found a small camping site, it had been abandoned, but it looked recently used which meant people couldn't be to far away.

She wasn't sure how long she walked, ran, and crawled; she had been tired but, it had all been worth it when she found what she had desired: people.

The scene couldn't have been more amazing, she had been following the tracks up a hill when it opened up onto a valley, and in that valley was a campsite. The first person she saw didn't notice her right away, infact she wasn't quite sure who it was, but that didn't stop her from cascading down the hill, nearly tripping while she ran, and hugged them.

She didn't process what was happening right away, at first all she heard was non-coherent squabbling, but then they warped into words that sounded a lot like 'Wwhat do you do you think your doing!', it was then she felt hands attempting to push her away.

She let go reluctantly, and it was then she got a good look at who she was hugging. At first she screamed, she hadn't meant to offend whoever she was looking at, but she couldn't help it. They had gray skin, what looked like fangs! Yellow eyes and maybe gills?

"This wwhole fucking place is screwed up." was the last thing he said before stalking away, his cape flowing behind him. She bent her knees and sat down for a moment, musing over what had just occurred.

"Well that was strange" she said to herself, she had been staring down at the ground when she heard someone call out her name.

"Jade?" she turned around to see none other than the goofy trickster himself, John, with a mild grin on his face. She immediately hopped up and hugged him with all her might. She had asked him all sorts of questions, like how long had he been there, and who was that other guy she ran into, and why were they her in the first place, which he all answered to the best of his knowledge. Once he finished he said to her that he would be back shortly and flew away.

She knew that the first person she ran into was one of the trolls named Eridan, and that there were two other people, one was a troll named Sollux and apparently Rose was here too. They had been here for two months which was odd she had only been there for a few weeks up to that point, and that other than herself there hadn't been any sign of anyone else.

John had said that to her more than two weeks ago now.

She learned quickly what to do, and what not to do around whomever.

Eridan was incredibly defensive and uptight he whined about a lot of stuff, but whenever she asked whether he wanted to talk about it or not, he sneered, usually said something awful and stalked away, very much in the same fashion he did when she first met him, of course then that was mildly understandable.

Sollux was not much better, at first he seemed normal, for the first few days he had been cordial enough, but then he went completely off one day, and kept yelling at her like what had happened was completely her fault. Then he would apologize sometime later on only to do something similar later on, at least Eridan was consistent in his defense. She understood people had their days, but those to were just completely out of her range of understanding.

Rose was quiet, as she expected, and talked very little, but when she did it was worthwhile, she didn't waste her breath on trivial matters like John did, she talked about things that made you think. And she always left a conversation off on a cliff hanger, that left a place to pick up on when one wanted to speak to her again.

John was a trickster always up to something, whenever he came around he eased the whole mood. He wasn't around often, however; either he was of finding supplies or flying off to find others.

Besides small arguments that erupted now and again they all cooperated well with each other, Eridan was a little tough to deal with and harder to coax into to doing something, but he still did his part with keeping the camp in a stable condition. He had a rifle of some sort that intrigued her interest, and she had asked countless times on how to use it and he sometimes opened up when she asked about it. They all fell into a routine, and it was almost normal.

She hoped that they found the others soon, she hoped they were alright, she really did.


	2. So We Search

Ch.2

When Jade had found their campsite John had been slightly hopeful that someone else would also find them, and then they could all figure out how this happened and how to get back to where they were supposed to be, of course, knowing sburb, that could be anywhere.

That had been seven weeks ago, and there hadn't been any contact from anyone else from their session. John tried to contact Dave on pester chum, but that had been useless since day one, luckily it wasn't all bad. He had retained his god tier powers and often flew great distances to look for anyone else, but every time he had came back empty handed.

He probably shouldn't have gotten his hopes up right away, but he couldn't help it. He had to have something to believe in, right? He had been with Rose, Eridan, and Sollux since the beginning, he learned very quickly that both trolls didn't particularly like each other. Though he wasn't sure if it was because they were really rivals of some sort, or that was just troll nature to be spiteful.

He fondly remembered his conversations with Karkat, and how the angry troll had threatened to kill him, he described these conversations with Jade, but whenever she mentioned Karkat's name she often changed the subject or ran off.

Sollux had been remarkably funny, when John had started to talk with him, the four horned troll had a weird way of speaking. His lisp was unbelievingly obvious and his moods switched between sad, angry, and apologetic. Jade had told John that he was probably bipolar, but John believed in his gut that Sollux was just an amazing master of disguise, and a true jokester.

Which then lead to an unhealthy admiration of the troll. John couldn't remember the last time he was this obsessed with anything, probably when he had seen Ghost Rider for the first time.

Even with that he hadn't spoke to the troll that often, he was smart though from what he could tell, the troll tried using his psychic powers to control some bees in the surrounding area, but all he got was a hoard of them chasing after him.

Turns out Sollux was allergic to bee stings.

Jade and Rose had tended to his sting wounds and John had brought different plants to help with his predicament.

One of the plants had to be poisonous to troll skin, Sollux had a rash on his lower back and his face for a week, and constantly shouted that he was going to kill John for this, that was the most like Karkat he had ever seen from the troll.

The rash went away very slowly until one day Sollux had woken up and it was gone. John was certainly relieved and Jade, even Rose looked a little happier when Sollux's rash had dissapated. It was a scary thought to imagine if he had never gotten over it.

One time the troll had a headache and an earthquake soon followed, it took all Jade's soothing and John's funny jokes to fully calm him down to a more amicable state.

Eridan hadn't helped at all during that period.

He said "Let the troll die", which Jade thought was horrible, which was then bait for Eridan to say, "He deserves it", which then urged Jade to ask "Why?", then Eridan replied "Because he's stupid."

And then they fought.

The two of them fought a lot, but those other times they were just arguing, this time it was a full blown wrestling match, which Jade won.

But regardless of what happened between that time and now they were all still together.

John was flying around aimlessly, and was just about to head back to camp when something shiny caught his eye. Intrigued he floated down to get a closer look at the object in question.

He finally had landed when he had been close enough to distinctly see what the object was. He picked it up gingerly off the ground. His eyes widened when he finally could tell what it was.

A pair of crooked authentic Ben Stiller sunglasses.


	3. Wicked Smiles

Ch3

When John had first come back with news about Dave's sunglasses, everyone was shocked in a sense. Sollux and Rose, surprisingly enough had shown the most concern. Eridan was put off by the discovery, but he did show mild interest and had traveled with John more and more frequently to search for more evidence that there were others. Rose and Sollux started constructing more housing for the distant hope of more people. That wasn't the only thing the two did together however.

Sollux and Rose were together more often, and did most daily activities together, the only time they were really apart was when they all had to locate more supplies and even then the two usually were together when they came back.

Eridan and Jade had noticed this early on, while John was too focused on trying to find Dave to really care.

Eridan had scoffed about it and grumbled something about matesprites often whenever Jade mentioned something about it.

Jade had found the relationship cute and one day had mentioned them being "best friends", that was the cue for Eridan to ask "Wwhat the bloody hell are'best friends'". Jade tried to the best of her ability to explain what 'best friends' were, but either Eridan was just too stupid to understand, or Jade had overestimated herself and her teaching abilities.

Finally one day, at least a week after John had found those glasses, Eridan had walked up to Jade and said "Do you mean like morails?" Jade had furrowed her brows, and asked him to explain what a 'morail' was. Unlike when Jade tried to explain what 'best friends' were, Jade quickly understood what morails were.

Jade had mused over the information, and said "Well, yes, yes almost exactly like that." Eridan had for the first time in Jade's presence, smiled.

It wasn't beautiful or amazing, nor was it happy, it was really a prideful, smug looking smile that stretched so widely across his face. Despite herself, Jade laughed, hard.

She nearly chocked on her breathe when he smiled at her, Eridan surprisingly joined in, though their laughs matched up unevenly with each other. While Jade's laughs were breathy and light, Eridan's guffaws were heavy, and almost evil sounding. When they finally settled down Eridan had continued his explanation of troll relationships, and Jade described human ones.

Eridan seemed confused why humans didn't seem to have ashen, or blackrom relationships and Jade had looked at Eridan incredulously when he had described a giant drone took genetic material to make baby trolls, or grubs.

Then they talked about different things like their homelives, and what they liked to do.

And Eridan finally let her use his rifle.

He called it Ahab's Crosshairs, it was a weird doohickey, but it packed a punch, Jade had been knocked down right on her butt, the first couple times she used the thing. To which Eridan laughed his odd evil laugh. After she had used it a couple times they both talked some more.

He had begrudgingly admitted that he hadn't had much luck in relationships, when Jade asked him about it.

He said that he wanted Sollux to be his kismesis, which some sort of rival, but Sollux had never fully complied.

He used to have a morail, her name was Feferi, Jade had contacted Feferi over pester chum and remembered her own conversations with her. Eridan had shown an interest over what had passed between her and Jade, and asked what they talked about. Jade had then just shook her head and giggled, saying that what had transpired between herself and Feferi was a secret, that lead to Eridan huffing and pouting.

Jade asked if he had any other friends that he liked talking to, Eridan had mentioned a troll named Vriska and another named Equius briefly, but he didn't go to much into his relationship with the two. Eridan said that a few of the trolls had favored talking to the humans, including Karkat.

Jade had held her head and feigned a headache when Karkat's name was mentioned, she told Eridan that she had an issue dealing with the troll in general and described one conversation she had with him in explicit detail.

At first Eridan was upset that she would talk about the conversation she had with Karkat, but wouldn't describe the ones she had with Feferi although that anger had quickly passed.

Eridan had described that Karkat had issues with everyone not just Jade, and that given the circumstances that were involved he did a pretty good job of handling it. Jade had understood the situation, and gave in to Eridan's explanation of Karkat's behavior, but she said he was still a immature douche.

Eridan smiled his wicked smile and looked at her again, he then did something he thought he'd never do, he hugged her.

It startled her at first, but what he said next almost made her cry.

He said "Thank you, thank you for understanding me."

Jade up to that point had been hanging limply in his arms, she then wrapped his arms around the taller troll and squeezed as tightly as she could.

John had just been flying above the campsite when he spotted Jade and Eridan hugging each other, he nearly fell out of the sky at that instance, instead he settled for just dropping his jaw.

When the two of them finally separated from the embrace John smiled. John was about to fly off again when he say a very frantic Rose running down the hill into the valley, much in the same fashion Jade had eight weeks ago.

In this instance however, Rose looked very, very distressed.

Eridan and Jade wasted no time running to the blonde with urgency; John had been too high up in the air to hear what Rose seemed to be saying, so he floated down quickly to get a better listen.

When John was close enough to hear what Rose was saying. He had to take a moment to undersatnd it.

Jade had asked Rose to calm down and explain what had happened; this wasn't like Rose at all.

The disheveled girl took a deep breath and said very clearly…

"Help, we found someone!"


	4. They're Not All Dorks

Ch.4

Sollux had been leisurely walking around the campsite when he saw a girl running down a valley hill, right toward Eridan.

At first he thought he would warn the other troll, but he had a second thought.

The bastard deserved what was coming, ever since they had randomly popped up in this weird place Eridan had been nothing but an annoying horn licker.

Well wherever they were, it wasn't Alternia, that was for sure.

The sun wasn't as bright, but it was still pretty uncomfortable to look at.

The humans, John and Rose commuted normally in it, without struggle.

Himself and Eridan didn't move around too much during the day, usually it was at night, sunset, and/or sunrise that they moved around at all.

He watched with an evil grin as the girl crashed into the other troll, holding him in some sort of vice grip; he hoped humans spit acid.

Unfortunately all the girl did was scream and fall onto her backside, the only thing the human had done to Eridan was put him in an already grumpier mood than he had been previously.

That incident had been three weeks ago.

Sollux was getting used to the sunlight and in a weird way almost started to like it, he learned that humans did not spit acid; however, they were all dorks.

The human being named John, was annoyingly cheerful when Sollux was around, the troll tried telling him off one day, but he just countered it by laughing, smiling and saying "That was great, could you teach me how to do that!"

'_What sense does that even make!' _Sollux thought, he hoped that they would find someone else soon, someone with some kind of sense of course; not an annoying doofus like Karkat.

Jade human was not as annoying as John, but she asked a lot of questions, in fact she never shut up.

At least that's what it felt like to him, but she meant well, most of the time.

Sometimes she would ask questions that would send Sollux off the edge, and he would then yell at her because of it.

Although it wasn't her fault he was like the way he was, but who cares it was because of these stupid humans probably they were here in the first place, they deserved what they got.

'_Wow now I sound like Karkat' Sollux thought, he was about to head out of the valley when he noticed the human named Rose writing something down. She kept looking up at something, she kept looking at him._

_That pissed Sollux off. "Hey human, you better not be writing about me human!" he said as he stalked over to Rose. Once he was close enough he snatched the booklet out of her hands, he could barely read human typing, how was he supposed to read their handwriting._

_He shoved the book back in her hands and asked "Are you writing about me?" quite rudely. She blinked for a moment in his direction, it was slow and deliberate, before she carefully answered "No, not exactly"._

_Sollux then inquired what 'No not exactly' was supposed to fucking mean, to which Rose calmly explained the book was about troll behavior, then Sollux asked something that could be translated to 'How is that supposed to help?', Rose then replied 'For future reference' to which Sollux said 'oh.'_

_Then the conversation went dead for a while, then started up again when Rose said "Although the book isn't about you, there is a great deal based on your behavior…"_

_Sollux had glanced at the human again through his glasses and decided that Rose was not a dork. _

_Rose had read the roughly written reports to Sollux, and Sollux had listened, he nearly threw a fit when she had inquired about the word 'bucket' and what it meant to trolls._

_They didn't become friends after that conversation however, it had happened about two weeks later, when Sollux had been stung by an enormous hoard of bees, they definitely weren't like Alternian bees, he must have run about half a mile back to camp with those things chasing after him. Until finally they had caught up to him. _

_The first thing he remembered feeling was the pain he had instantly felt with each sting, the second thing he remembered was someone dragging him back to camp on their back, the last thing he remembered was seeing Rose's face._

_Sollux had woke up two days later with a incredible headache and a burning rash, it hurt so bad he couldn't help but scream. An earthquake had erupted because of it, he knew that, afterwards._

_John and Jade had done ridiculous things to try and calm the screaming boy down, which had did little help to pacify him. What really did it was when Rose had held his hands and stroked his arms, she had said something to him. Sollux wasn't sure exactly what the words were, but it didn't matter the look in her eyes was enough. Whether Rose was aware of it or not her eyes had shown something valuable to the four-horned troll: concern._

_She cared._

_After that they were nearly inseparable, they didn't talk about trivial things though, infact they barely talked at all to each other, most of the time being in the other's presence was good enough. When they did talk it was about people, not specifically anyone, but just in general, Sollux sometimes described what his life was like and Rose described hers, she mentioned the human Dave somewhere in one of their conversations._

_Which at the time Sollux had shown a good amount of interest in anything she had talked about so he had asked more about Dave. _

_Rose had gave Sollux a very vague description of what Dave was like, but that didn't hinder Sollux's understanding of the human at all, he just put the pieces together and quickly established Dave's character in his mind. Sollux said he would like meet Dave one day, to which Rose nodded her head in agreement and said 'I hope you do too, you guys would probably be good acquaintances.'_

_It had been nearly sunset when the conversation ended. _

_Two weeks later Sollux and Rose had just came back from fetching some more building material for the camp when John almost flew right into them screaming._

_Sollux had dropped his supplies and yelled at the clumsy jokester, berating him about looking where he was going and saying that John needed some new glasses. John just smiled and said something about what an amazing actor Sollux was._

_Rose was the first to notice that John had something in his hands: sunglasses. _

_Dave's sunglasses._

_Eridan didn't seem all that concerned about the discovery, but for some reason agreed to help John on his escapades in the hope of finding more people._

_Rose had found the change in behavior strange and put it down in her book for later reference. _

_She had tried to ask Jade what had caused Eridan's sudden change in his attitude toward the search, but Jade had only shook her head and stated she was done trying to understand fish head._

_Rose decided that she would find about Eridan eventually._

_About a week later, Dave still hadn't been found. _

_Rose didn't find it all that surprising, but if the cool kid was still out there she wanted him to be found soon. Sollux wished for the same thing, but it was more out of his selfish desire of wanting to meet Dave than a real care for his well being. Whatever their reasons they both looked for Strider. _

_Sollux and Rose had traveled pretty far in the jungle before they decided to head back, it was the late evening and they usually were back at camp before night fall. They were about half way there when they heard rusting in some nearby bushes._

_Immediately they were on the defensive, Sollux held his head in some weird way and Rose brought out her crocheting needles, she hadn't been able to use the needles in a while and she itching for some action._

_What had happened next was completely based on reactions to people having something jumping out at them. _

_Something had jumped right out of the bushes directly at Rose, she was just about to strike when Sollux jumped in front of her and took off his glasses._

_He used some kind of psychic blast on the creature, whatever it was the thing was immobilized before it had stricken anyone down._

_What a mistake that was._

_At first Rose thought it was her imagination playing tricks on her, but no, what was in front of them was a real person. Sollux panicked and thought they had killed them, but then they began to groan and mumble on the ground._

_Although it wasn't Strider, it was definitely someone from their session. And they were a troll, that much she could tell._

_Sollux had started to freak out and repeatedly kept saying "Oh God, oh God, oh God, oh God."_

_Rose had stayed calm until she saw what Sollux was looking at: blood, lots of it._

_It was an odd color, but the smell was certainly blood. Rose decided quickly that they needed help, so she ran back to camp, while Sollux stayed._

_When she arrived back at camp her hair was in shambles, and she was incredibly tired, but she had to get there attention. _

_She spotted Eridan and Jade first, and both rushed up to her to find out what the commotion was, John too was just then floating down from the sky._

_Jade at the time had been trying to calm her down, and attempted to get a coherent message out of her._

"_Breathe, breathe,…" Jade had said._

_Rose had took a deep breathe and finally got out…_

"_Help, we found someone!" _


	5. So Sorry

Ch.5

Eridan and John had been the ones that went out to see who was found.

When they arrived Sollux had the troll turned on their back and was trying desperately to stop the blood from spewing out of the wounded trolls chest.

It was a bloody mess, litterally.

John was too shocked to do anything except stand and stare at the whole situation. Eridan had pulled out what looked like a magic wand and pointed at the bleeding trolls wound. A flash of light emanated from the tip of the magic stick and almost instantly the would had been sealed.

It wasn't perfect however and Eridan mentioned that they needed to get them back to camp quickly.

Both Sollux and Eridan proposed that John flew the troll back to camp for further care, and Sollux and Eridan would run back to camp as quickly as possible.

John looked at the troll in his arms and handled them with caution, and flew off as quickly, but also just as carefully flew away back to the campsite.

John heard very quiet mumbling through from the troll in his arms, he wasn't quite sure what he heard, but they had moaned a bit louder and John distinctly heard; "I'm sorry,….. I'm so sorry."

John felt like he was intruding on some private affair, and tried to block out the rest of what the troll was saying on the way back to camp.

Turns out that it had been the best choice for John to take the troll back to camp; he had arrived back to the campsite in almost no time at all. Sollux and Eridan arrived back a little more than thirty minutes later, the distance was no more than a twelve minute run, but Eridan had a huge knot on the top of his head, that silently explained the other eighteen-minutes.

It had been quickly established that the troll who they had rescued was named Nepeta Leijon, Sollux kept apologizing to the troll, but those apologies fell on deaf ears because she was completely blacked out.

Jade attended to her for four days before Nepeta had woken up in a fantastical frenzy.

Jade now had three scars on her left arm from that event, the wound looked like she had tangled with Wolverine from the X-men. For the first two days Nepeta had been quiet, she could move out of her bed, but she decided not to. John had brought food to her every few hours, but she would barely eat any of it. Rose tried to coax her into a more open state but that didn't work, and Sollux had continuously apologized to her, but she didn't respond.

Eridan didn't go anywhere near the small hut Nepeta was staying at, in fact he didn't do much of anything for those few days.

It was on the third day that Nepeta's activity changed, or rather the third night.

Jade had been dreaming about the battle with Bec Noir, before they had all ended up here in this weird place. When something had woken her up. Jade wasn't sure if it was a sound or she had felt something, but when she opened her eyes, she saw another pair of glowing yellow ones staring right at her.

Jade, of course, screamed.

Nepeta hadn't expected the human girl to scream an therefore fell over and tried to scramble away quickly.

She did try.

Nepeta failed miserably at trying to get away, she tripped over some sort of plush bumpy object on the ground, and ended up smacking her head into a wall.

Eridan had bee the first to wake up because of her screaming. At first he thought that Jade was just spazzing out over a bug, but quickly dismissed the notion, the girl had survived on her own for nearly six sweeps. He tried going back to sleep but then he heard a loud thump. Eridan sighed and meandered his way over to Jade's little shack.

The first thing he saw was Jade standing on top of her half-hazardly made mattress made out of animal pelts, freaking out and pointing at the troll across the other side of the room. The second thing he saw was Nepeta on the ground holding her head.

Even he, for all his encounters with land dwellers, could not make sense of the situation.

"Wwhat the hell is going on here…." Eridan said drowsily.

Nepeta up until that moment had been holding here head and silently been saying 'ow, ow, ow, ow', to herself. She looked up in the direction she heard the funny voice from and saw Eridan. Nepeta, in true cat fashion, hissed in his direction, and started swiping.

Before the whole mysterious re-location, the hissing would be enough to scare him off, but all it did that time was irritate him.

"I don't havve time for this.", Eridan said before moving forward in Nepeta's direction. Nepeta just kept swiping and hissing, Eridan thought briefly back to when Jade had hugged him when she first came to camp, maybe that's what she needed a hug.

Eridan didn't pay any mind to the warnings as he scooped Nepeta up and embraced her in a very tight hug.

What a mistake that was.

The next morning Eridan now had a scratch wound, similar to Jades's, over his face. Luckily she hadn't done any permanent damage to his eyes but his right one had been slightly swollen shut.

Nepeta hadn't stuck around long enough to see Eridan hold his face and angrily shout about how his it was ruined for all eternity. Jade had just watched him take his frustration out on her bed, and offered words of encouragement.

Surprisingly enough no one else had gotten up to that whole fiasco. So needless to say the surprise on everyone's faces when Eridan had stormed through camp with the fresh injuries he had received the night before.

Jade had told him he shouldn't have been surprised, that he did have enough warning before the whole thing happened, she asked why he had hugged her in the first place. Eridan exploded, and said because that was what Jade had done when she first came to camp, and he thought that since Nepeta was found alone that maybe she needed one after put through all hell she was put through, including being barbecued by Sollux's stupid ass.

Jade didn't say anything after that, she simply put a hand on his shoulder and quietly soothed him.

Jade knew Eridan had been only trying to help, but he would always let his own defensive sheild block him from seeing everything clearly.

She hoped he grew out of it, Eridan did too.

A day in a half later Nepeta still hadn't really moved from her little shelter, she did come out sometimes, but barely at all.

Jade looked at the direction of Nepeta's shelter and decide that today was the day that Nepeta was going to come out her cage, but she would probably need some help.

Jade asked Rose if she could help her coax Nepeta out into the open, and Rose quickly obliged. Rose said this was a perfect opportunity to study the troll's behavior, which Jade really didn't care about, but she was glad she had decided to help despite whatever weird reason she had for doing it.

Jade had been the first to approach, she had stuck her head in the little doorway and peaked around to look around for the reclusive troll.

Nepeta had been curled away in the farthest corner from the doorway, she had been having a pleasant nap when she heard scuffling at her doorway. She wouldn't have cared about it, but it had smelled slightly….fishy, immediately she was on the defensive.

Jade saw Nepeta tucked away in one of the tiny buildings four corners, she heard mumbling and immediately was concerned. She thought the troll girl might have been sick or her wounds had reopened.

Nepeta knew that whoever it was happened to be getting closer and she was ready to pounce.

Jade had been about four feet away when all of a sudden she was pulled back by Rose, she had been taken by surprise and gasped. At about the same time Nepeta had pounced in Jade's direction.

Nepeta missed Jade, and for the second time since coming to the campsite, smacked her head into a wall.

Jade was astonished and thanked Rose quickly for rescuing her, Rose had simply nodded and mentioned something about having enough practice with her cat Jasper to know something was up.

Nepeta, all the while, repeated the mantra 'ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow' several times while holding her battered head. By the time Nepeta had actually looked up at the strangers, she realized that they had not been who she thought was there. She could still smell the fishy smell though, she sniffed around and found out the smell was coming from the human Jade.

She smelled like fish, she smelled like Ampora.

"You smell bad, like Eridan does, but you don't act like him…" Nepeta said.

Jade and Rose had looked at each other, then back toward the troll that was sitting up and staring at them expectantly. While Rose took down notes, Jade tried explaining that she was friends with the sea troll.

Well, she did try.

Nepeta seemed completely dumbfounded that anyone would want to be friends with 'Ampora'. Rose had smiled, and laughed silently to herself, when the troll had mentioned something about Eridan being a bad fish kitty.

They found out no one from the group of trolls had really liked him because of his weird attitude, and Nepeta mentioned that even a troll named Equius, who was a total pushover, thought he was a bit strange.

Jade remembered Eridan saying something or rather about a troll of the same name, she put the little tid bit in her memory banks for later.

Turns out Nepeta wasn't all that reclusive, she just took really long cat naps.

Both Jade and Rose realized early on that Nepeta liked to role play and was very, very curious.

Nepeta, for all her experience as a hunter, had probably delayed the camp's progress the most when it came to stocking up on food.

They didn't have a way to really store anything organic that they happened to find or hunt down, so the group was usually out looking for food almost everyday. It had been a pretty solid routine, up until Nepeta came to camp. Not that she meant to cause any trouble, most times the situations had been due to being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

For instance, there had been an occurrence that some large beast or another had been cornered by Sollux, Eridan, and Jade. Just when they were about to jump the thing Nepeta had jumped out and scared it off.

Eridan had yelled at her for that, but Jade figured that most of that rage had been concentrated from the time she had scratched his face than scaring off any source of food.

John decided that he would show her how do things properly, turns out they made a pretty good team.

They were like brother and sister, John was the helpful inspiring brother, and Nepeta was the kind and wonderful sister. John took great fun in her role-playing, In their adventures John was named Windy boy and Nepeta was called The Amazing Kitty Wonder.

Jade found it cute, Rose found it interesting, Sollux hadn't cared and Eridan had nothing good to say about it.

John had learned a lot from the troll girl.

He hadn't known about troll blood hierarchy system, or that they called there houses 'hives', he certainly got a better look into the lives of trolls as they grew up, unlike the majority of the trolls he encountered she wasn't as moody, she noticed a lot of little things and in return John did too. It was sort of refreshing to have an attitude like Nepeta's around.

It was late at night when John had heard a noise, he was afraid that the camp had attracted some animal so he went to check it out.

It wasn't an animal, it was Nepeta.

She was sitting down in the grass, she was holding a something in her hands.

John stepped closer to get a better look.

She was holding a pair of broken sunglasses.


	6. Who's Sunglasses?

Ch.6

Nepeta Leijon is an incredible hunter.

She's able to track animals for miles, and strike before they know what hit them, she was a super huntress.

Nepeta Leijon is an incredible role-player.

She can out role-play anyone, she is the absolute champion.

Even her friends have to role-play when she does, because it's just that essential.

Nepeta Leijon is incredibly lonely.

She was caught completely off guard when the switch thing happened, and where she wounded up was a mystery to her, it wouldn't have been so bad had she been with her meowrail, but she hadn't seen him since the mysterious event.

She was on her own for nearly half a sweep before she had seen anyone, at that time it was completely incidental that the troll had run into anyone.

Nepeta had found an extensive labyrinth of caves similar to her old hive that she had decided to make her temporary settlement. She had found several different types of plants and rocks and other things that she collected to decorate her new hive. It was almost perfect.

Almost.

She missed her friends, she missed Feferi, and Sollux, she missed Aradia, and Tavros, she missed Kanaya, and Terezi, Karkat, and Gamzee. She even started missing Vriska, and Ampora.

She missed her morail the most, she missed Equius, she even missed the way he sweat a lot and his dumb, silly highblood rules that he liked following.

She missed his dumb typing quirks and his weird way of speaking, she missed obsession with being strong and even the bruises he'd accidently give her when he tried to pat her on the head or give her a hug.

So she went to look for him.

It was rough initially for the first few days, she had a few run ins with some exceptionally strong claw beast, but after a while she got used to it. Somedays she thought she had latched on to some clues on his whereabouts, but they all turned out to be duds.

Then one day she found something really interesting: a pair of sunglasses, broken sunglasses.

She had been so happy, Nepeta had been leaping for joy when she found a clue of the highblooded troll's whereabouts.

She knew she shouldn't have gotten her hopes up so quickly, but she couldn't help it, she felt the discovery could keep her going forever.

For two weeks Nepeta looked for her morail near and far, but there wasn't any sign of him.

She was beginning to think the worst had happened, what if he was dead, and what if he had died weeks ago and she just now realized it.

She was sad, and then she was angry _'Equius don't you die without me'_, Nepeta thought as she ran through the jungle.

It was nearly sun down when she heard something in a nearby bush; she wasn't sure what it was, but she was so desperate.

She leaped and she had yelled "Equius!"

It wasn't Equius, it was a lot of pain.

Nepeta remembered coming in and out of consciousness.

She remembered saying "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry I couldn't find you", before blacking out completely.

That had happened a while ago now.

Now there were people and they were her friends, she took back what she had thought about missing Ampora though.

Nepeta looked into the night sky and held her morail's glasses in her hands.

"Don't worry, I'll find you" she said

Almost in a questioning reply, she heard "Who's sunglasses?"


	7. Something Dorky

Ch.7

"Whose Sunglasses?" Nepeta heard a voice say behind her.

She turned around swiftly to see who had seen her.

It was John.

Nepeta let go of a breath she wasn't even aware she was holding, she put her hand over her heart and sighed.

"Windy boy, don't scare me like that." Nepeta grumbled. John smiled and began to approach her.

"Sorry, I hadn't meant to scare you, although it's not like 'The Amazing Kitty Wonder' to have someone sneak up on them like that. *Gasp* You haven't lost your edge have you!" John joked.

"Noooo, no it's nothing like that!" Nepeta recovered quickly.

John laughed, he found it funny how seriously the troll took things sometimes, but the question remained whose sunglasses did she have in her hands.

Instinctively his hands went to his pocket, no, the sunglasses were still there. He wondered for a moment if they were hers, he hadn't seen her wear them before however…..

"So, whose are those?" John repeated, Nepeta looked back at him curiously, clearly she hadn't understood the question. So John pointed at the glasses that were still in her hands.

Nepeta looked down slowly until she saw what he had indicated, he wanted to know about the sunglasses: Equius's sunglasses.

Nepeta looked back up at John just as slowly as she had looked down at the sunglasses, she turned her face away and mumbled something.

John sighed, although he could sympathize with her, and he understood the possible sensitivity of the situation. It wouldn't help anyone if she didn't say anything, _'but how to get her to open up… I got it!'_

John decided to sit next to Nepeta on the ground and stare up at the sky, "Pretty cool, isn't it!" John said cheerfully.

Nepeta offered a half smile "Yeah I guess…" she said glumly.

"Do they belong to a friend of yours?" John asked bluntly.

Nepeta hesitated "Yeah…they do" she said somewhat awkwardly, and John gave her a goofy grin.

"Small world" John said, that comment confused Nepeta, she was about to ask what he meant when she noticed he had a pair of sunglasses on his face.

She stared at him for a moment, and then she hissed, got up, and walked away. _'The nerve of him mocking me like that' _Nepeta thought.

"Wait, wait, wait!" John pleaded, he hadn't meant to tick her off, just to make the conversation easier for her, oh why did things never work out for him the way they were supposed to.

John had taken off the sunglasses and flown right in front of her to stop her parade and tried to explain himself, "Look these aren't mine, these belong to a friend of mine, who is gone, well not really gone, BUT they're missing, just like yours is.. I think they are at least…"

Nepeta didn't respond right after she waited a moment, the next thing she did was pat John on the head and said "What am I going to do with you silly troll." She sported a mad, toothy smile in John's direction, this was John's turn to look confused. "That's what he used to say to me…, my friend."

"Oh…"

The conversation went silent.

"I bet your friend isn't the coolest like my friend." John started.

"Yeah he is! He's the coolest troll ever, he's even cooler than your friend is, he's so cool he sweats coolness out of his pores!" Nepeta countered.

"My friend is so cool that he doesn't need to sweat!" John threw back.

"Oh yeah, well my meowrail drinks amazing lusus milk, your friend doesn't even have that!"

"Pfft, well my best bro drinks something better than that!"

"Oh yeah, like what!?"

John spun around in a circle while shouting, "Apple Juice!"

They both burst out laughing, and a lot of the night was spent doing just that.

They were sprawled out on the ground with their arms fanned out and their legs spread wide, when John asked "What does he act like?" , Nepeta stumbled as she got up off the ground, and turned away from John.

John thought he had gotten her angry again, but that fear was quickly squashed when she turned around to look at him with the cracked sunglasses she had been holding on her face.

"Ahem!" she cleared her breath.

"Um, I am a very aristocratic high blood and I take the blood hierarchy system too seriously, and I'm angry all the time." she said it in an odd deep voice, that sounded sort of hoarse, John laughed, Nepeta continued, "In fact, I'm filled with so much rage that I build robots and beat them up just to get rid of all of it, ALL OF THIS RAGE!" Nepeta then proceeded to flex her muscles and punch the air in a dramatic manner while chanting 'I'm STRONG' with amazing intensity.

"That's great!" John complemented, _'But why should she have all the fun'_ he thought.

John jumped up off the ground and put Strider's sunglasses on, _'Swagger' _

"I'm so damn cool that you can never read my expressions, I wear these sunglasses all the time because if anyone saw my eyes they would immediately explode in a fiery heap, that is the only outcome that could happen from viewing my eyeballs." John said.

"What, that is a ludicrous notion, it doesn't make any of the slightest sense.." Nepeta said.

"Well neither does your broken sunglasses,…uh, bro" John awkwardly sent back.

"Yeah they do…they….well, uh…ummm…fiddlesticks."

Windy boy and the Amazing Kitty Wonder both flopped back down on the ground.

"We're not cool are we?" John asked.

"No, no we're not." Nepeta answered.

They both sighed.

"Well so much for being cool, but you know we are?" John asked mischievously.

"What are we Windy boy?" Nepeta asked.

John smiled, "We're friends."

Nepeta said nothing she just giggled because there was nothing else they needed to say on the matter, it simply just was.

The next morning Rose woke up to a "Wwhat the fuck is going on here?"

Rose had been having a marvelous dream, when she had been so rudely interrupted by the voice of an angry seatroll. No matter how much he had changed since her first encounter with him, Eridan still whined a lot, mostly over things that were trivial.

Still if there really was something to be concerned about she knew she would be sorry later on if she hadn't taken a look at the commotion.

Rose slowly shuffled over to where Eridan was standing, he had his hands on his hips and a disapproving scowl on his face, she heard him grumbling quietly to himself angrily. She would have laughed, but that show of emotion wouldn't have been appropriate at that time.

Her eyes finally locked with what Eridan had been staring at; John and Nepeta on the ground, with sunglasses on their faces, asleep.

They were both in a kind of snow angel position, John had been drooling slightly and Nepeta had an awfully goofy grin on her face. Neither looked like they had any propriety and they showed no dignity.

Rose blinked hard once and wondered how she had stayed friends with the boy sprawled on the ground.

One of life's mysteries she supposed.

She turned to Eridan and had asked 'what the commotion was about'.

Eridan turned to Rose, and had whispered loudly something like 'can't you tell? ' and continued ranting on how he kept running into bodies.

Rose wished she had a notebook and pen with her, this was a one of those opportunites that were once in a lifetime occasions, and in that case it very well could have been. However she did not have either, so she settled with her voice and her memory to act as a substitute.

Eridan didn't always whine about trivial things it seemed,

In the short fifteen minute conversation Rose had with Eridan she learned a lot more about him than she had in the last few months she'd traveled with him. In that session he described why he whined about most things, she still didn't think the complaints about work were justified, but everything else seemed to come into better light. Rose had never wondered why his concerns were brought up when the group had went deep into the jungle, or why he kept away from certain plants and animals they came across.

Maybe it was because she hadn't given him much thought before, when the conversation had ended, he got up nodded his head in her direction and walked quickly away, not in a stumbling manner, but the distance between them had gotten very large very quickly, or maybe she had been imagining the distance.

Rose decided that she would have to have more conversations with Eridan.

The rest of her day was spent looking at the clouds and speaking with Sollux from time to time.

She sighed as the sun began to set and the smell of food entered her nose, she turned to see Jade and Eridan by a fire cooking some kind of plant, although she was hungry she was more concerned about the conversation going on between the troll and her friend.

Jade looked anxious, and slightly irritated, but none of it appeared to be directed toward Eridan. In fact he seemed to be sharing the same looks of anxiety, but just when Rose had gotten close enough to hear about what the two were talking about, John flew right into her.

Rose felt like she had been hit with a ton of bricks, "Ow…" she said.

John as imperviously naïve as ever said "Oh, hello Rose." Even so he didn't have his signature grin on his face.

It was about time she figured out what was going on.

"What happened? Did you all experience a life-changing event that has now traumatized your psyche and you're all suffering fro-"Jade cut her off.

"Nepeta's gone."


	8. Who's that crazy Cat

Ch.8

Eridan was not a very kind troll, in fact he was very sour and dramatic, he took things too seriously most of the time and never really apologized for what damage he may have caused.

People would never be able to reason with him so they would just ignore him.

And that was how his life pretty much went.

Anyone who associated with the sea-troll would eventually fall from his life the moment that he became too much to bear, but he would just keep on hoping that someone would be able to stay with him.

He was beginning to give up on his miserable life, but then something amazing happened.

He found a friend.

She was fantastic, beautiful in the way she did things, he could speak about his grievances and she would understand his problems, his issues, his life.

At least she used to, until he hoped for something that was impossible.

Someone to do anything more than tolerate him.

It would be wrong to say that it didn't hurt, however, the blow had been softened by his doubts. She had just confirmed what he already knew somewhere in his heart. Eridan had thought he was finally free of his curse when she rejected his feelings, but then something amazing happened.

They were still there.

Eridan hated himself sometimes, he didn't know why he kept on believing in the impossible, in the unacheivable, in the impractical, in the ridiculous, in things that were completely hopeless.

But he did, and it hurt.

He wanted badly to give in to his despair, to just let it swallow him completely, but some part of him always said _'don't worry it will get better, you'll see, you'll see'._

What a joke that was...

Anytime he let that idea cross his mind the universe would shove his face right in it and show him how pathetic he really was.

He was tired of being the only one who had their hope taken away, who's happiness disappeared.

He wanted others to feel it to, the hopelessness..

The pain that he would always have in his heart.

The misery that came with believing in something impossible.

So they knew how it felt, so they could comprehend the pain, so they could finally understand him...

And maybe then...then they could all be happy...together...

He was given no such luck however...

But he kept on living, and he kept on hoping...

For people, for understanding, for love...

And above all for peace...

* * *

Eridan had spoken with Rose earlier that day about his issues, but he didn't go into too much detail about it, besides her interest in him had been bordering on creepy, and he had been through enough creepy stuff already, he didn't need another thing added to the list.

He was walking around the border of the valley that the group of six had been taking refuge in when he heard some suspicious rustling.

Living in the sea had taught him to either kill or be killed.

So why should life on the surface be any difference.

He was about to fire Ahab's Crosshairs when Nepeta suddenly popped out of the bushes.

They looked at each other wide eyed for a second.

Then Eridan spoke.

"Wwhat the hell are you doing in there, Nepeta" he said

Nepeta bristled at him and spat "None of your buisness Mister Ampurrrrra!"

He glared "Huh, Mister, it almost sounds like you're a decent civilized troll!"

"I am! And way more than you could effuurrr hope to be!"

He was about to fling back another remark, but something stopped him, whether it was the desperate look in her eyes, the way her tail twitched nervously, or the fact that he was tired of arguing all together he wasn't really sure, but he knew one thing, she was stalling.

"Stop doing that.." he replied back calmly.

"I have no idea what you're talking about Eridan." she stated, she stood up to her full height, which didn't do very much for her, but it did give him a clue to figuring out that she was hiding something. Equius always had a nasty habit of trying to seem intimidating when he was backed into a corner, and it seems to have rubbed off on his morail, the only problem was that she couldn't quite pull it off.

"Wwhat are you hiding in those bushes.." Eridan paushed, he was making his way toward the bush she had jumped out a few seconds ago, when Nepeta blocked him. _'I'm sure now she's hidin' somethin' _he thought.

"Nothing..." she was squirming uncomfortably under his gaze, _'oh I havve her now'_

"Are you sure... if it's just nothing, then you don't mind if I blow this up with Ahab then will you." He tighted his grip on the gun to make sure she got the point.

Her eyes widened,_ 'got'cha'_

"Are you sure there isn't anything there..."

"Absolutely."

This was getting tiresome

"Nepeta you're lying, it's obvious, just show me what's back there and lets be done with it." Eridan demanded impatiently.

Nepeta wasn't one who kept too many secrets, which Eridan had noticed about most lowblood trolls, they had very little expected of them in their lives, so they didn't have as much at stake. They all had a little bit of freedom.

Another luxury fate hadn't given him.

"She opened her mouth for a second, but closed it right after, she looked at him, her eyes blazing, but there was something else in them that he recognized.

She stepped out of his way and beckoned for him to continue, Eridan gave Nepeta a wary glance before continuing forward, what was behind the bush was something he wasn't expecting.

What he thought he would see was some sort of dead animal, or even some crudely made weapons, but it wasn't either; it was a makeshift bag filled with some supplies.

He didn't really understand it at first, but when he put her discreetness and her defensive attitude together he got his answer.

Nepeta was leaving the campsite.

"Why?" Eridan asked, he wasn't upset, but there was a mild layer of confusion in his voice.

"Because I have to find him.." Nepeta said. Eridan didn't have to ask who "he " was; he knew who she was talking about.

At this moment all Eridan could do was stare, he knew Nepeta had been alone for about a human year before they found her. She had changed a little bit, and it showed, but after all she had went through, and the circumstances that had and were still against her she still believed that there was a chance out there, that there was some impossible choice that she could choose. Eridan regarded her for a moment, he didn't know whether to call her foolish, or brave for her confidence and... and something else.

Eridan finally pinpointed what he had seen in her eyes a second earlier, but know it had spread out to her whole body .

It was hope.

The same hope he always had, the same hope he constantly felt, and consistently fell prey to.

He wanted then to do nothing more than berate her, to vanquish her hope in her weakened emotional state so that she never pursued it again...so she didn't fall victim to it.

But again something stopped the seadweller.

He understood what it was like to believe in something fully, with all your heart, and true it hurt when your hopes were crushed or swept away, but nothing else hurt much more than regret and self-loathing for something you were too afraid to do.

"Just go Nepeta.."

She looked at him with curious eyes, she obviously, hadn't been expecting that, but she didn't take time to ask him why; Nepeta grabbed the bag she had made, looked back at Eridan one more time, and left.

And that was that.

It wasn't until much later that anyone noticed Nepeta's disappearance. Eridan had tried showing concern and feigned a small amount of sadness when this news came to light for everyone else.

He did try.

Unfortunately it came off as mild indifference or sarcastic to everyone else, John had gotten very upset with him, and Rose and Sollux were both predictably put off by the way he had acted, even Jade was slightly affronted.

A search party was made to go find her, Eridan knew they would find her eventually, but he hoped that before they did she was able to find a clue of her morail's whereabouts.

Even if she didn't find him, he knew a smidgen of anything that could be connected to the blue-blooded troll would be enough for the time being.

Because believing in something is all someone needs to keep going.

* * *

**A/N: Yeah I won't be uploading for this story for about a week, but enjoy random other stories on this website while you wait I suggest Adolescence by SelenaEstella it's great, tootles!**


	9. Author's Note (On Hiatus)

**A/N: Alright since I know I can't write two stories at the same time I'm going to put this one on Hiatus until I finish 'Alternian Visitors'**

**Please be the lovely patient people I know you are, thank you. :)**


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